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Partisan? Post-Partisan? Give me the Cross

Matthew Lee Anderson returns to the question of partisanship without being captive to the “partisan mind.” He is probably a little easy on his Republican friends. (And should note the partisan snark on Rep. Stupak misreads how politics work among the Dems — another issue).

The better path of partisanship is not a wholesale defense of partisanship but rather the understanding that we have a strategic alliance that will break the moment the Republican party ceases to be friendly to our concerns. We can take that approach, I think, while recognizing that there are substantive differences between the party platforms and their their environments (blessings on you few pro-life Democrats, but the failure of Stupak effectively killed their prospects for the season),

You were going so well until the last paragraph. I would encourage thinking this through a little more carefully, especially from the spiritual dimension. Partisanship is a spiritually destructive mindset; it cripples. Talk to your politco friends and see how many get jaded or jump. We really can only participate in politics as we understand it as under the cross, as judged. The moral energy that gives us conviction can easily drive us off the cliff through demonization of the Other. We easily forget that if Christ died for anybody, he died for the SOBs who are our political opponents.

At a more practical level — far more practical, actually — the reality is that most participate in politics for tribal reasons. I vote D in part because I grew up in a university town, and because my parents came from the prairies hammered by the Depression and rescued by FDR. If that is how people actually vote, then the proximate alliance with one party or the other is simply an erecting of barriers to other “tribes”. And on this eve of Pentecost, it’s hard not to remember that we are commissioned to be witnesses to the Samaritans and Romans, as well as the safe guys in Judea. When evangelicals make the too-easy identification with one party, they shut off the conversation that must go on if we are to be serious about the Good News.

Partisanship is your deep enemy, a proper Principality (in honor of W Wink). At the same time, some — many– of us will be called to again pick up the craft of politics and policy; there’s no shame in that game. But we do it best, seeing it under the judgement of Christ, who came not to make enemies, but to reconcile enemies by his blood (cf. Eph. 2:13f.).